Are You a Trophy Hunter?

I was reading some news on the internet right after last E3, when I stumbled on a very interesting post over at IGN about PSN Trophies. For those who can’t remember, PSN Trophies arrived in 2008 and introduced achievement-like unlocks for PS3 and PSN games. The post at the link made me realize that a few gamers — including me — have changed the way they play games ever since they appeared!

I don’t remember when I really started to care about Trophies. Back then, I used to get them without anticipating them. I do remember a friend telling me he got started to level up thanks to his Trophy count in one awesome game: 3D Dot Game Heroes. I then decided to put the game back in the PS3 and restarted it to get more trophies than he did, ultimately reaching 72% trophy completion (I won!). Shortly after that, I got my first Platinum with Ratchet & Clank: A Crack In Time and I think this is when I got hooked!

Since then, I usually try to get the most trophies in the games I play. I managed to get a few accessible Platinums, and I’m actually working toward Platinuming the amazing Tales of Graces f (still missing around a whooping 50 hours to achieve it!).

So, what about you? Do you invest time to get trophies? Or are you sticking to the main story and then moving on to another game without caring about them? If you invested time, which Platinum Trophy are you proud of? Let me know in the comments below!

for some reason i have this thing that if its my fav franchise, i have no choice but to plat it. Like if its Resistance, Uncharted, Batman, killzone, its a must, but i mk exceptions for some like Metal Gear Solid, which would take too much of my time as it is, and also bc not all of the games have trophies, only 3 mgs games have them, if all of them had them id definitly go for it, and same with GTA, i wasnt into plats when it came out so i missed out on some part of that games MP, plus the terrible lag just made it unplayable.
But yea since then, i have made it my job to play the story on the hardest difficulty available, and such.

Trophies have almost completely monopolised the way I game, not deliberatly but it seems to have happened along the lines… I will always look through the trophies first to see if there are any I might miss if I make a ‘wrong’ choice. Also If I’ll get a trophy I’ll slam the game onto its hardest difficulty. The truly dumb trap I’ve fallen into is not playing games that don’t have trophies because I want trophies! For this reason I have yet to really start Oblvion and I almost missed out on Fallout 3 because I missread the box… This is troubling, though I do make the acceptions for game like Assassins Creed where the first doesn’t have trophies but the next ones will… *sigh*

Fun article, interesting discussion! I’m certainly not a trophy hunter. In fact, they kind of annoy me, inasmuch as my lack of trophies might suggest that I’m playing a game “incorrectly” in some way. But I’m happy that they’re available for those who have some investment in them.

While I’m not opposed to the idea of Trophies I think the idea of an achievement system is like dual analogs on the 3DS. A bad idea that promotes laziness in developers and promotes a negative shift in gaming.

Personally I’ve always been a completionist type gamer so at the surface Trophies are great at simply letting me know when to stop. Especially with forever games like Pac-Man, or tremendous repeats like Castle Crashers. I liked the fact that with a trophy in theory I could know I’ve seen pretty much everything in the game.

But in reality the implementation of trophies varies wildly. While some games like inFamous or Burnout Paradise have what I call Perfect Implementations giving your trophies for completing the game, seeing pretty much all there is in the game and then putting in some time. Other games do it completely wrong. Games like Resistance and it’s “Get a million kills” trophy or Singstar with it’s “Get 1000 ratings and average 4 stars” trophies. I’d have more examples but I’m a slow, cheap, backlog gamer. I’m just finishing Assassin’s Creed and honestly I had to jump that up the queue 7-8 games to play it.

Functionally I don’t like to let trophies dictate my gameplay. Developers are too…. wrong-headed with designing them. There’s no reward anymore for playing game. I think games should reward you for doing thing and what they’ve stumbled upon is that rather than designing a reward they can just give you a number. That’s lazy. inFamous did a great job of subverting that. You got an in-game reward for collecting Shards and even then you only needed about 90% of them to maximize the reward, but there was a trophy to encourage you to get them all. Burnout Paradise does similar things with it’s collectables. It requires you to get 90% of the gates for the trophy rewarding you with a car for getting the rest.

Oh for the record dual analog stick on the 3DS are a bad idea because it encourages developers to just port home games to a portable system. The DS was fantastic because it had portable games. games designed to fit that portable system. You put two stick on a portable console all anyone will do is the same tired 3D move with one stick, camera with the other stick control system. A system that benefits games that don’t work well in portable means. It’s insanely frustrating that noone seems to get this. You pretty much have the PSP/PSVita and while I respect the tech in both of those consoles (they are gorgeous and sexy) they don’t have NEAR the love, portable playability, or library variety as the DS or GBA and I think that’s a HUGE reason why.

The circle pad does break the 3DS. Games like Kid Icaraus are completely unplayable for us southpaws. Heck I hear you can’t really play it on the go even if you are right-handed. But if they put a second circle pad rather than using it just for lefty -flip mode. It will be used for every game as a dual analog. Long have I marked the gaming community as full of idiots and the 3DS “dual analog” requested feature is the demonstrative height of my point.

@wolfkin: Have to agree on the dual analog on the 3DS whining by some. It was not part of the main design, and it will not be part of the main redesign either. You’ve got the circle pad pro to use as an extra, but it is not mandatory. Resident Evil Revelations plays damn well with only one analog. Too bad about you being left handed, as I can imagine Kid Icarus being almost impossible to play hehehe.

I 100% disagree on the dual analog sticks for the 3DS so I’ll be your appointed idiot. I don’t believe you lose anything in translation by adding a dual analog stick. The same games now are still possible plus more with the addition of a second analog stick. I also see nothing wrong with console ports to handhelds. In fact they are often great and don’t take away from the many portable only gems that are found on these handheld systems.

If a new system of control is desired, it should be done by building on what is already proven and not by eliminating what is already standard. Like the Wii. It did not remove the 2nd analog stick at all. It still exists in one form or another but we refer to it as motion or nunchuck attachment. It was a widely accepted change to the current standard and not an elimination even though I still loathe motion gaming lol.

Granted…the stylus and touch screen are heavy marketable contorl schemes on the 3DS and the 2nd analog stick would cause some conflict there, but ignoring multiple control schemes is to ignore multiple genres of games as we know them. i.e. Monster Hunter would be near pointless.

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As for trophies…I always collect the low hanging fruit and some of the ones that I need to jump for…very seldom do I climb the tree for all the fruit. I do love my trophies however and have skipped on games that did not include them in the past.

@Eddie: You split the user base since millions have only single analog, and introducing a new SKU with dual analog would mean that developers would eventually make dual analog mandatory. Dual analog on the 3DS is an extra that only 6 games use so far.

Now, back on trophies? I NEED to hear that chime on my TV, STAT! Hahaha, too much work has slowed down my gaming, and it is not fun-fun at all.

It’s not even about the split of the base per se. They can swallow that. Most of the people will buy the new system, and it’s been so short in the life that devs would be willing to drop the old consumers.

@ehandlr But handhelds aren’t consoles. It’s not about ignoring a standard control scheme. If anything I propose that with two analogs console controls would take over and developers would ignore the “actual standard” control schemes of the portable system. yes there are certain genres that don’t work without dual analogs. I say these are genres we can do without on the portable. It’s one of the reasons I don’t really understand the fuss over COD for Vita. COD isn’t a game you can really play casually. At this point it’s mostly a multiplayer game anyway. A pretty hardcore multiplayer game. It’s not something you really play “while out”. I think most people who want to play CoD on Vita will play it at home. If you’re at home why wouldn’t you play it on your big screen TV? I think similar arguments apply to most genres of the dual analog variety. (See also : Uncharted).

Obviously some of those genres can be adopted for one stick. Some of them to the genre’s benefits like the twin stick shooter. Geometry Wars on the DS is probably one of the best controlling versions of the game.

@EdEN speaking of chime.. i heard the chime on this page. Not sure why or how. interesting

I believe that is a short sighted view though. I enjoy my Vita at home even though I have a PS3 and 360 as well. I also enjoy my Vita at friends houses and even at work where I also have a constant internet connection. To me its not about choosing one over the other, but just enjoying both depending on my situation and mood. I’ve ALWAYS played COD casually. The only reason I really get into is because of friends who get together and enjoy it. I play for an hour or so and then stop most of the time and you really can’t anymore casual then that. COD on the Vita won’t be any different. In fact I’ll enjoy some great tv time while playing online COD with friends all at the same time.

I agree that devs would focus on the 2nd analog stick and leave out some other control schemes…but thats because the fanbase will vote for that with their money. In the end…Nintendo will stick to what they like so first party games will still control the way you favor them to and there is nothing wrong with that and really thats good enough.